Bach Family

[ando]

Back to Wilhelm Friedemann; here's a fine performance of his Adagio & Fugue in D minor, F.65. allmusic.com's Joseph Stephenson provides a nice capsule review of the composition. The Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Ensemble-In-Residence performed the work live at their concert hall in Singapore on 18 February of 2023:

Incidentally, BC's now out-of-print Wilhelm Friedemann Edition is available for streaming on YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.

[ando]

No one knows who in the Bach family wrote this one. But it was a delight to wake up to it this morning.

Sonata for Keyboard and Violin in G minor, H. 542.5 (presumably, CPE Bach)

[ando]

The Sons of Bach, Vol. 1: C.P.E. Bach Symphonies & Chamber Music
Cello – Reinhold Johannes Buhl
Composed By – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Conductor – Günter Kehr
Flute – Klaus Pohlers
Harpsichord – Martin Galling
Orchestra – Mainzer Kammerorchester
Viola – Georg Schmid
Violin – Günter Kehr

[ando]

Sometimes I think that in the circles Johann Christian moved and the patronage he garnered, not desiring to make a false step often resulted in making rather predictable ones. Of course, this is the hindsight of centuries. Beautiful as his compositions often are they don't exactly challenge the listener.

J.C. Bach's famous Symphony No. 6 in G Minor

[ando]

At the opposite end, of course, is Wilhelm Friedemann, whose music offers little reward if you're not attentively listening -

Sinfonia (for strings) in F Major

[Florestan]

Sometimes I think that in the circles Johann Christian moved and the patronage he garnered, not desiring to make a false step often resulted in making rather predictable ones. Of course, this is the hindsight of centuries. Beautiful as his compositions often are they don't exactly challenge the listener.

J.C. Bach's famous Symphony No. 6 in G Minor

Why should music always challenge the listener? J. Chr. Bach was a pioneer and devotee of the style galant, whose aesthetics was about charming and moving the audience, not about challenging it. Is an unchallenging beauty less beautiful than a challenging one?

[ando]

Why should music always challenge the listener? J. Chr. Bach was a pioneer and devotee of the style galant, whose aesthetics was about charming and moving the audience, not about challenging it. Is an unchallenging beauty less beautiful than a challenging one?

Not at all. There's all kinds of ways to "move" a listener. I'll never suggest that music should "always" be anything - except interesting. Part of my point was to characterize one of the ways the music of J.C. differs from both C.PE. and W.F.; far from a dismissal. But his penchant to please audiences is clearly more evident than either of the other two.

[Florestan]

Not at all. There's all kinds of ways to "move" a listener. I'll never suggest that music should "always" be anything - except interesting. Part of my point was to characterize one of the ways the music of J.C. differs from both C.PE. and W.F.; far from a dismissal. But his penchant to please audiences is clearly more evident than either of the other two.

Thanks for clarifying. I agree, totally. Actually, CPE's and J.Chr.'s aesthetics and soundworld could not be more different, what with the inwardness of the former and the worldliness of the latter. I can't imagime J. Chr. writing the Wurttemberg Sonatas any more than I can imagine CPE writing the Vauxhall Songs. 

[ando]

FYI: The Bach Family Tree (from JS Bach's great grandfather, Veit Bach)

[ando]

No one's mentioned the music of Johann Christoph Frederick. I'm not sure where he stands among the sons of J. S. in terms of talent as I'm just discovering his work now. This well regarded Camerata Köln recording of J.C.F.'s Trio Sonata in E Minor is a nice place to begin.

[ando]

More on JCF Bach by pianist, Jermaine Sprosse -

on his new CD of keyboard works

interview on the JCF project.

Apple Music

[ando]

Came across this doc tracing the footsteps of J.S. in Thomaskirche, Leipzig with organist/conductor, Ton Koopman. Good one. The soundtrack is in Dutch, but the English captions are (unusually) good.